Worcester police busy investigating stabbing, shots fired, melee

Police were kept busy today responding to several violent incidents in the city.

About 1:50 p.m., a 19-year-old man was stabbed once in the chest, and twice in the arm near 510 Main St.

A police officer downtown had seen a commotion involving eight to 10 males near City Hall, and as he approached, the group scattered, according to a Police Department news release. The officer saw one person holding his side, apparently in pain, and got the license plate number of a white Nissan Sentra that some of the group had entered on Franklin Street. The car was seen a short time later on Thomas Street near Commercial Street, and police saw fresh blood in the car but no one in the car was hurt.

Meanwhile, police learned that a male with stab wounds had walked in to St. Vincent Hospital, and police confirmed it was the person seen holding his side, the news release said. The injuries were not life-threatening, police said.

In a separate incident, several Beacon Street residents reported hearing gunshots shortly after 2 p.m. today, and a number of police cruisers responded.

Police converged in the parking lot of the four-story apartment building at 34 Beacon St. Investigators cordoned off a tan sedan parked in the corner of the lot with yellow crime scene tape. Police also told the owner of a blue sedan in the front of the parking lot, in the line of fire of the other vehicle, that his car had been shot, according to the owner. He did not give his name.

Alicia Barboza only had one thought as she heard the gunshots.

“My son was coming,” Ms. Barboza said. Her 6-year-old son was on the school bus making its way down Beacon Street. Ms. Barboza said there was no way she would go back inside her home with bullets flying across the street if her boy was on that bus. “When it comes to my child, nothing's stopping me.”

Ms. Barboza said she heard seven gunshots, and she told police that the shots rang out from the area of an abandoned building set back off Beacon Street. She described seeing the “white lights” of the shots.

“It looked like fireworks,” Ms. Barboza said. “I could hear them shooting and I could see the bus coming.”

Ms. Barboza said it did not appear the shots were aimed at anyone in particular because there was no one around.

Ms. Barboza's sister, Shelly Simpson, also heard the shots.

“I heard the first three,” Ms. Simpson said. “I knew it was gunshots. I yelled to my sister to get back in.”

Other neighbors stood out on porches as police combed through the yards for shell casings. Some said they heard loud noises.

Police also responded to another incident within the same time frame.

Outside 269 Hamilton St., which is at the corner of Stratfield Street, local teens who had apparently just gotten out of school were involved in a melee with police that involved pepper spray, one resident said.

Jacqueline Reis of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report.